Abstract

Bloch et al. (1986) have recently presented observations of the soft
X-ray background in the low-energy beryllium band (0.078-0.11 keV). They
argue that the lack of apparent variation in the ratio of beryllium band
intensity to higher energy boron band intensity indicates an absence of
intervening absorbing material in the local interstellar medium with
upper limits to N(H) of order several times 10 to the 18th/sq cm. If
this result is correct, then the X-ray-emitting gas must be located very
close to the sun, which would require that it be significantly
over-pressured with respect to the rest of the interstellar medium. It
is shown that this extreme constraint can be avoided if one allows for
the likely possibility that the absorbing component is comprised of
clouds embedded within the hot emitting gas. The observations may well
be entirely consistent with photoelectric absorption of the beryllium
band emission for a range of embedded models having widely different
geometries.

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